Improvement in steam-boiler furnaces



M. LAUF'ENBURG.

STEAM BOILER FURNACE.

$10,174,826, v Patented March 14, 1876.

' Inventor 7 gap Witnesses 56d '1'0 all whom it may concern:

- person skilled in the art or science to which of steam-boilers and burning it as afuel for UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MICHAEL LAUFENBU'RG, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA;

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM-BOILER FURNACES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.- 1 74,826, dated March 14, 1876; application filed p January 4, 1876.

Be it known that I ,MIcHAEL LAUFENBURG, of San Francisco city and county, State of California, have invented Improvements in Furnaces-to Steam-Boilers; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanying drawings are suificient to enable any it most nearly appertains to make and use my said invention or improvement without fur-- then in ventionor experiment.

My invention relates to an improved arrangement for feeding straw to the furnaces generatingsteam.

' It consists of a peculiarly-constructed door which can either beapplied in place of the ordinary furnace-door, or it can be located directly in front of thdgratebars and extend entirely across the front of the furnace.

The grate-bars I suspend upon journalsa-t or near the middle of the furnace,and weight. their rear ends. I then connect the door with the front ends of the grate-bars, so that When-. ever the door is opened and closed the gratebars will be shaken or jarred, while the weigh t ed rear ends of the grate-bars serve to close the door. I g

In order to more fully illustrate and describe my invention, reference is had to the accom panyin g drawing, forming a part of this specification, in which-- i Figure 1 a perspective view of my improvement.

Let A represent the boiler-furnace, and B the boiler-front.

In the present instance I have represented the door as being located directly in front of the furnacegrate and extending entirely across the furnace front; but, as will hereinafter be shown, it can he applied in a similar manner with the grate.

c c c are the grate bars. These bars are secured together in any suitable manner to form the grate, and the grate thus formed is suspended at or near its middle by journals (1 d from the sides of the furnace, or it may be suspended from hangers e e, as represented in the present case, the latter method giving a swinging motion to the grate, which is preferable. The rear end of the grate I make heavier than the front end, either by placing a weight upon them or preferably by making the rear ends of the bars longer than the front ends, and then bending the extensionsfff upward so as to form a vertical grate in the rear of the horizontal grate, the whole being combined together in one grate.

The furnace front I cut entirely away from a line directlyin front of the surface of the grate-bars. I also extend the sides and bottom of the furnace forward so as to form a projecting box, G, in frontof the furnace,.below the level of the grate.

The front half of the grate-bars project far enough forward to have their front ends strike against the lower edge of the boiler-front, where it is cut away. A door, H, is placed at an incline directlyabove the box G so that its inner or upper edge will also rest upon the forward ends of the grate-bars While its outer or lower edge is pivoted to the sides of the box, as shown. edge of this door on legs or standards h, which are pivoted to the sides of the box G so as to raise the edgeof the door and provide a space between it and the front edge of the box through which aircan pass under the grate.

A flange, 1, is secured to the lower edge of the boiler-front outside of the furnace. This flange is inclined upward at an angle opposite .-=t0 the angle of the door, as shown, and can be formed by merely turning a portion of the boiler-front upward, thus forming a flaring or V- shaped approach to the door-opening.

The straw is fed to the furnace by placing it in the V-shaped angle between the door and flange I, when, by pressing. it'forward with a 'fork, the upper end of the door is depressed,

carrying with it the forward end of the grate- ,barsuntil an opening is made sufficiently large to admit the straw. Itis then pushed into the furnace with the fork, and as the fork is withdrawn the superior weight of the rear end of the grate-bars will raise the forward end and close the door, the striking of the forward end of the bars against the lower edge of the boiler-front producing a jar which will clear the bars from cinders. This construction also enables me to feed the straw to the furnace at anypoint in its width, whereas the or- Usually ,I mount the front 'the straw -by choking off the draft.

dinary door arrangement only prov-ides a limited opening, so that the straw is all fed in one place and creates a heap of cinders atthat point, which prevents the proper burning of By placing the door below the grate-bars and feeding on a level withthem, the freshstraw which is" introduced disturbs the cinders and is fed directly into the hottest part, so that it is readily burned.

The vertical extensions f f f serve to prevent the cinders and straw from being drawn into the flues by the draft; and,'in orderto make them more efl'ective, I shall ordinarily] furnace-door by connecting the .inner end of-v lheinclined door'with'th'e front'ends' of the suspended grate by "means i of i a rod-connec-i tion extending down. to the grate bars, in which case it can' be'used for feeding wood, brush, 'or other light fuel; or-a vertically-slid-s ing door can be connected with the grate-so as to he closed by'its weighted rear end.

Having thus described my invention, what.

I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Paten't, is-

1. The grate-bars c 0, weighted at their rear ends and jonrn'ale'd :at-d d as levers, to automatically close the furnace-door, substantially as described.

2. The grate-bars c c c,'snspendcd from journals d d by means of hangers e e, and having their rear ends extended and the extension turned-up was to form avertical grate in the rearof the horizontal grate, substantially as and for the purpose described.

3. The grate-bars c c c, constructed and snspended as described, in combination-with the inclined door H, whichis pivoted at its-lower end,andhas-its front-endconnected with the gra'tebars so as to be closed by the superior 1 gravity of the rear ends-of the grate-bars,

substantiallyas above specified,

4. The upwardly-inclined flange I, in com- I -binati'on with afurnace-door, H, which opens: entirely across the furnacefront, substantially as and for the purpose described.

MICHAEL 'LAUFENBURG.

Witnesses: 1

GEo. H. STRONG, JNO. L. Booms. 

